More Residents Pressing Botti On Vow Of Quick Flood Relief

June 23, 1993|By Linda Young.

A second wave of residents from southeastern Du Page County went to a County Board meeting Tuesday to demand immediate relief from flood woes, but they were told the county's spending priorites could not be altered to speed up repairs of their storm sewer systems.

After a similar group showed up at a meeting two weeks ago, County Board Chairman Aldo Botti promised prompt help. The promise came amid his tour of the flooded areas along unincorporated neighborhoods near Illinois Highway 83 in the Burr Ridge area, which was pelted with nearly 5 inches of rain.

On Tuesday, the latest delegation of about a dozen protesters were led by activists Patricia Nied and Angelique Maalem, who supported Botti in his successful 1990 campaign for chairman. Both heaped praise on his efforts to provide relief in the area.

Although county officials said hundreds of homes suffered damage from heavy rains around June 7, they reported receiving only 29 official water-related complaints from southeastern Du Page residents that week. They said the objects of complaints ranged from debris left by standing water to basement windows that were broken out by high water. Stormwater engineer Jeff Dailey said 46 calls came in from throughout the county during that period.

Calling the region "neglected, oppressed, mistreated and abused," Nied called for the dismissal of Environmental Concerns Director Greg Wilcox.

"Mr. Wilcox never even bothered to tour and see firsthand the damage and destruction that befell southeast Du Page," Nied said.

Wilcox said he would give up supervising drainage in the county, since he has many other projects that need attention but lack funds to carry out.

County Board member Lloyd Renfro (R-Glen Ellyn), chairman of the Public Works and Drainage Committee, was another target of the protesters. He said money is too tight to complete even one major flood-control project this year.

Renfro said repairs in the Pleasant Dale region eventually could cost more than $6.5 million. In the unincorported neighborhood of Kingery East, county officials have raised estimates of repairs to an aging drainage systen to more than $800,000 from $290,000.

Renfro said that the projects stack up against the total of $1.5 million budgeted for storm-sewer projects in 1993 and that the priorites set up by the committee-previously led by former board member Patricia Trowbridge-will not be altered. Trowbridge was a Botti ally and represented District 3, which includes the affected neighborhoods.

Renfro said that although about $9.6 million will be committed for sewer repairs in the county over the next five years, improvements needed in southeastern Du Page alone would swallow twice that amount.

On Monday, Botti appointed County Board members Wallace Brown, Barbara Purcell, Patricia Bellock and Gertrude Coit, who represent the county's southeastern tip, to study the drainage problems.

Purcell said many of the problems arose because the county allowed virtually unchecked building in past years in an area that was not equipped to handle the storm runoff.

Meanwhile the U.S. Small Business Association began accepting disaster-loan applications Tuesday from Du Page residents and small businesses affected by the flooding this month.